Resolving A Problem with Apple's ProAps Update

Posted on by Larry

Recently, Apple released an update to its ProAps frameworks. These are behind-the-scenes utilities that provide shared resources used by all the applications. The new revisions are available via Software Update.

In Apple’s announcement, they indicated that one of the things they fixed was a series of memory leaks, which is something that Soundtrack Pro has suffered from since its initial release.

However, my philosophy is to ALWAYS wait whenever Apple announces a new update – just in case the new version does more harm than good. (You can read an article I wrote about upgrading here.) So, I didn’t install the upgrade until this weekend.

At which point, I immediately began having problems using Soundtrack Pro. After experiencing five or six crashes within ten minutes, and sending a crash report to Apple, I did the usual — Safe Boot, Rebuild Permissions, creating new versions of the project file using Save As — all of which did not solve the problem.

What DID solve the problem was trashing Soundtrack Pro’s preferences — something that we have not had to do before.

So, if you find that Soundtrack Pro is becoming unstable:

Reopen your project in Soundtrack Pro and you should be good to go.

Once I trashed this preference file, Soundtrack has been running reliably for hours.

Larry


2 Responses to Resolving A Problem with Apple's ProAps Update

  1. Thomas says:

    Thanks for the info Larry! Glad you were able to track it down.

    – Thomas

  2. Thanks for the info on SoundTrack Pro vs the ProKit update.

    It got me thinking: would you consider some way of creating some sort of formal or even informal pro-editors experiences-tracking system for Apple editing software related updates?

    Of course there are the Apple forums and such, but the signal-to-noise ratio tends to be pretty challenging in that context.

    I’m well familiar with the “don’t update except between projects rule.” And the “wait Until a few weeks after release” rule to make sure a given update isn’t a lemon.

    That aside, it’s still extremely useful to get a sense of which updates are fraught with peril, which have a relatively clean success to damage ratio, and which updates are worthwhile but only after Apple gets around to updating a related component. (The many instances where a QuickTime update damaged some component in Final Cut Pro until the Final Cut team released an Pro-Apps update come to mind.)

    incidentally, I first posed a similar question a few minutes ago to Mike Curtis at the bottom of a recent blog entry of his, but after sending it it occurred to me that you seem better set up for this sort of thing, given your readership and your regular interaction with your readers.

    Thanks, Stephen Gagné
    Westwood Creek Productions

    – – –

    Stephen:

    Thanks for the thoughts.

    We are working on something like this, which I hope to have ready by NAB. Though not quite what you are asking for, I’m hoping it comes close.

    I’ll let everyone know, via the newsletter, when it’s ready.

    Thanks,

    larry

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Larry Recommends:

FCPX 10.5 Complete

NEW & Updated!

Edit smarter with Larry’s latest training, all available in our store.

Access over 1,900 on-demand video editing courses. Become a member of our Video Training Library today!

JOIN NOW

Subscribe to Larry's FREE weekly newsletter and save 10%
on your first purchase.